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Did Washington St. player get school award for court-ordered community service?

nick bromberg
College football and motorsports writer
Washington State LB Logan Tago (R) was ordered to complete 240 hours of community service in January. (AP)
Washington State LB Logan Tago (R) was ordered to complete 240 hours of community service in January. (AP)

There are times when you shouldn’t brag about awards your players receive. This was probably one of those times for Washington State.

The school’s athletics website posted an article late last week that noted linebacker Logan Tago got an award from the school’s center for civic engagement for completing 240 hours of community service in and around the Pullman, Washington, area.

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That’s great! Congratulations to Tago. What compelled him to do all that community service, you might ask? Well here’s where this feel-good story very likely turns into a face-palming one.

Tago’s community service was court-ordered as part of a plea deal he agreed to in January. As part of his plea deal, as the Seattle Times noted at the time, “Tago will serve 30 days in Whitman County jail, perform 240 hours of community service and pay $800 in fines.”

Here’s where we note that Washington State’s article bragging about Tago’s community service does not explicitly state the reason for the hours he “volunteered.” If Tago actually completed 480 hours of community service — 240 for the court-ordered service and 240 because he wanted to keep on helping out — we’re guessing Washington State would have noted that. This doesn’t seem well-thought out. And, quite frankly, we’re surprised the tweet and article about Tago still exist.

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Tago’s community service and month in jail came after he was accused of stealing a man’s six-pack of beer and hitting the man in the head in the summer of 2016. That was an eventful summer for Washington State players and the allegations of incidents led Mike Leach to complain about media and police treatment of football players.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!